Pleating



Feb. 3, 1953 MC 555 2,627,310

PLEATING Filed March '7, 1951 IN V EN TOR.

:0 WWO M ATTORNEY.

Patented Feb. 3, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PLEATING Alexander McDonald Hess, New York, N. Y.

Application March '7, 1951,Serial No. 214,293

(or. 160--348) l 1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to pleating strips or tapes adapted for attachment to draperies, curtains and the like and more particularly to means associated therewith for securing the collected pleats tog-ether. I i

Ordinarily, it has been necessary, in order to obtain a professionaltouch to the draperies, and provide a display of the triple or French pinch pleat upon the front of the curtain or drapery, to sew the forward portions of the pleats together at a point below their upper ends andsuch that they would flare outwardly up from the location of the sewing thereby to give the much desired appearance This sewing necessarily had to take place through the several thicknesses of the curtain material forming the pleats and at times when the curtain or draperies were to be cleaned there was required a tedious drawing of the threads and after the cleaning a second sewing operation. All this required time and was often costly in that professional decorators were required to do the job in order that the desired touch would be obtained.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a pleating strip or tape which will have a detachable device for the connecting of pleats in triplicate and in pinched fashion so as to give the desired French or triple pinched pleat effect the same as was had by the ordinary sewing of the pleats whereby at times when it is desired to effect a cleaning or ironing operation upon the drapery or curtain there is no necessity that threads be pulled and the pleats be ref'ashioned and sewed when again hanging the curtains.

According to the present invention the pleating strip or tape made from buckram or similar stiffening material has a series of impressions or the like at spaced locations throughout the length of the strip so as to give to the curtain a series of triple pleating formations. The present invention also includes a metal clip somewhat similar to an ordinary metal paper clip which can be extended over the pinched rear portions of the pleats through holes in the pleating strip.

Other objects and advantages will appear as the description of the particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention progresses and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In describing the invention in detail and the particular physical embodiment selected to i1lustrate the invention, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings and the several views thereon, in which like characters of reference 2. designate like parts and in which: I

Fig. l is a fragmentary view of the top edge of a drape viewed from the rear thereof and having a pleating header strip attached thereto which is constructed in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2 is also a rear view of the same drapery as shown by Fig. 1 showing the pleats in place and a supporting rod properly positioned; Fig. 3 is a plan View of a metal clip used in my invention. a I i In Fig-l I have shown adrape l to which a buckram pleating strip 2 has been attached. This attachment may be accomplished in any suitable or appropriate manner. I prefer rows of stitching as 3, 4 and 5.

The pleating strip 2 may be made of any suit able or appropriate material. I prefer a somewhat heavy buckram. The buckram is of a width extending from the point 6 to the point I and is formed along its length with pairs: of rod orifices 8 and 9. These rod orifices are for the purpose of passing a supporting rod behind the buckram and between the buckram and the drape as shown in Fig. 2 and, as is more clearly illustrated in my prior Patent No. 2,527,360, granted October 24, 1950.

Intermediate the rod orifices 8 and 9, I make I cut-out portions, slits, or impressions as II), II, I2, l3 and I4. These slits or impressions are for the purpose of defining the apexes of the pleats to be formed and, when the pleats are formed, will be positioned as shown in Fig. 2 in which P designates the pleats as a whole.

After the pleats are formed, in order to give them the desired French pleat effect and to hold them permanently, they must be held tightly together at a slight distance below the top thereof, that is, at about the point 15.

In order to hold the pleats together I form holes in the buckram 2. These holes are just below and in line with the rod openings such as 8 and 9. One hole I5 is beneath rod opening 8 and another hole I! is beneath the rod opening 9.

When the drape with the attached buckram is pleated, the holes or orifices l6 and I! are brought closely adjacent one to the other as shown in Fig. 2. These orifices or holes IE and I1 provide means by which I may insert a metal clip, designated as a whole by C and shown in Fig. 3, to hold the pleats together a short distance from the top, as one leg l8 of the clip C is put through one orifice, as [6, an the other leg I9 is put through the other orifice H.

The clip C is made preferably of metal and throughout the several views,

3 preferably of steel and is of a material which has considerable elasticity and resiliency so that it may be slightly distorted and its elastic force will tend to bring the legs l8 and i9 together and hold anything firmly which is placed therebetween.

I'prefer to make the clip C in the general form of a U and I prefer to have each leg of the U formed with a return bend so that leg I8 has a return bend 2-0 and leg W has a return bend 2|.

From the hereinbefore given description it will be seen that I have provided an easy and effective means for the ordinary housewife to form pleats in her draperies and maintain those pleats by holding them together in such manner as will simulate the well known French pleat. The means furnished only require sufiicient skill to attach the buckram to the drape. I have shown this as attached by sewing, but I do not mean to exclude the attachment by an adhesive, such as a heat sensitive adhesive applied in zones to the tape so that certain portions or zones will not adhere to the drape so that the rod 22 used for supporting the drape may be inserted between the drape and the tape.

Although I have particularly described a preferred physical embodiment of invention and explained the construction and principle thereof, nevertheless, I desire to have it understood that the form selected is merely illustrative, but does not exhaust the possible physical embodiments of the idea of means underlying my invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A pleating strip adapted for attachment to a drapery, curtain or the like and having impressions therein suitable for forming a plurality of pleats on the forward face of the curtain, a U-shaped member positioned to cooperat with the sides of the pinched folded pleats forward of the strip and back of the pleats to prevent their lateral expansion, said pleating strip formed with through holes from front to back of the strip and located respectively at opposite sides of the folded pleats for receiving the ends of the U-shaped clip to position the clip and to retain the same against vertical displacement on the folded pleats.

ALEXANDER MCDONALD HESS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 179,169 Eastman June 27, 1876 1,860,110 Marten May 24, 1932 2,527,360 Hess Oct. 24, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 539,739 France Apr. 6, 1922 

